Owners are saving significantly on energy, although they haven’t yet recouped the initial costs of energy retrofits like installing low-flow toilets and motion sensors that shut off lights in empty spaces, or creating bike storage rooms and sealing exterior doors to reduce heat loss.

The carrot for these New York landlords includes high LEED ratings, public praise and perhaps, although not certainly, more and happier tenants. The stick is the city’s tough new emission standards with their phased mandatory goals aimed at reducing fossil fuel use by 80% by 2050.

Isn’t it interesting how persuasive legislation can be in stimulating important social change?

Yet a very quick look through the list of projects funded by the federal government’s Enabling Accessibility in Communities, one of the only programs available to help nonprofits meet these requirements, includes astonishingly few in the arts. And the program is not accepting new applications.

Toronto’s relatively new Green Standard might be a first step towards New York-like mandated energy efficiency standards. I hope we’re not planning to wait until energy efficiency changes are legislated before we begin finding ways to green our buildings.